Sports videogames have been very successful and popular in the past. There are a variety of sports games that have been provided for use on videogame consoles, such as NINTENDO's N64, SEGA's DREAMCAST, and SONY's PLAYSTATION2, to name just a few. Numerous basketball, football, soccer, baseball and hockey games, as well as many other sports games, have been created for playing on videogame consoles. Due mainly to the major advancements in graphics hardware over the years, these sports videogames have become very realistic and provide users of the games with an exciting and enjoyable experience that closely simulates real sports competition. The software behind these videogames has also become very sophisticated and facilitates many elements of real sports competition in order to provide the user with an experience that simulates real sports play as close as possible. For example, in basketball video games, the player is provided with the ability to dribble, pass, shoot, dunk, block and perform many other simulated acts that a real basketball player would perform during an actual game. A few better known basketball videogames include NINTENDO's NBA COURTSIDE I and II, NBA LIVE 2000-2002, MIDWAY's NBA SHOWTIME, ACCLAIM's NBA JAM, as well as college games (NCAA) provided by ELECTRONIC ARTS and others (just to name a few).
While prior videogames have very realistic game play, the industry is constantly striving to improve the games and provide even greater realistic and exciting experiences for the player. Constant improvements are needed in order to continue to satisfy the every increasing demand for high quality and realistic sports video games.
In order to make sports video games more interesting for the users, a variety of different types of actions are made possible for a player to perform during the game and a variety of different animations are used for each different action. For example, basketball games typically include numerous different types of dunks that can be performed depending on the particular situation that a player is in when the user provides a dunk command. For each situation that a player may be in there are often numerous different actions that the player may take in response to a command from the user to take an action. For example, when a user presses the shoot or dunk button during a basketball game, there are typically numerous possible dunks (and corresponding dunk animations) that the player may perform, some being more aggressive and riskier than others. In other words, a number of possible dunks (e.g., 5-25 different dunks) may be authorized and defined by the game software for a situation that a particular player is currently in when a dunk is requested by the user. In conventional games, the particular dunk from the list of possible dunks that is performed is not determined by the user, but instead is determined randomly (or pseudo-randomly) by the software itself. In other words, this aspect of the game, i.e., the selection of the particular action from a list of possible actions, is not under the control of the user. As a result, the player may, for example, perform an aggressive dunk (high adrenaline move) even though the user would have preferred that the player act more conservatively in that particular situation to avoid the possibility that, for example, the dunk would be missed, blocked or result in an offensive foul. In fact, in conventional games it can be frustrating for a user when the player makes an aggressive move and losses the ball, when a more conservative move would have resulted in an easy basket. On the other hand, it can be equally frustrating when the player does not act aggressively in a situation that calls for aggressive action, i.e., in a situation where an aggressive move will likely be successful (e.g., 360 degree slam dunk under the basket with no defenders around) and will increase the team's momentum. The level of aggression or adrenaline that is used can be an important element on both offense and defense. However, with prior art games, this game parameter is not under the control of the user, which significantly detracts from the realism and enjoyment of the game. The fact that the software determines which particular move or action is performed by the player out of a list of possible moves detracts from the overall competition and enjoyment of the game.
One prior art technique that has been used in an attempt to give the user more control over the type of action that is taken by a player during game play, is to assign certain actions to certain buttons on the controller. For example, in a basketball game, the user and/or the software may assign certain types of dunks to certain buttons, respectively, on the game controller. One button could be assigned a simple, low aggression dunk and another could be assigned a 360 degree slam dunk. Thus, the user can select the type of dunk that is performed by selecting the desired button on the controller. While this prior technique does provide increased control for the user in determining the type of action taken by a player during game play, it also has the disadvantage of complicating the game by requiring the user to assign various buttons to the various actions and to remember what button represents what action. In addition, there are a limited number of buttons available on game controllers (e.g., 4) for such purposes. Thus, this technique does not work for games that have many different (e.g., 10 or more) possible types of actions for a particular situation.
Sports games are including more and more possible player actions in the games which has increased the problem of no control by the user over the particular action taken by the player. For a particular player located in a particular position on the court there may be twenty or more possible actions that could be taken, each having its own level of aggression and associated animation. Not being able to control the particular level of aggression that is used prevents the game from being as realistic as it otherwise could be. Certainly, real world players select the particular aggression level that they will use for a particular action depending on the particular circumstance that they are in at the time. Sometimes aggressive or high adrenaline moves are needed or called for based on the current situation, while other times lower aggression moves are needed so as not to take a chance for an adverse result. The amount of aggression or adrenaline that a player uses applies to many different types of actions in sports games, on offense as well as defense. Some of the more common actions having particular application to the present invention are, for example, shooting, blocking, dribbling, hitting, dunking and stealing.
A variety of game controllers have been provided in the past for use by the user to manipulate the action during game play. Such controllers generally have several digital buttons and an analog joystick for use by the user during the game. More recently, game controllers, such as the controller for SONY's PLAYSTATION2 and for the NINTENDO GAMECUBE, have incorporated a second analog joystick and/or one or more analog buttons.
For at least the foregoing reasons, improvements in user control over the particular type of action that a player may take in a sports video game or the like are needed. The present invention addressed this need by providing an adrenaline button on the game controller that enables the user to specify the particular level of adrenaline or aggression that will be used for a particular action at a particular point in time. Thus, the user can decide how aggressive the player will act in certain situations, thereby enabling the player to balance the advantages of acting aggressively (e.g., increasing momentum and/or seeing exciting animations) against the disadvantages of acting aggressively (e.g., having the shot blocked or ball stolen).
In accordance with a main aspect of the invention, a method for controlling game play is provided for use in a video game, wherein a plurality of possible animated actions can be taken by a game character in response to an input from a user provided through a game controller. The method of controlling game play, includes: detecting user input from the game controller requesting an animated action by the player; reading an adrenaline value from a control element on the controller indicating a level of aggression desired by the user for the animated action; selecting an animated action from the plurality of possible animated actions based at least in part on the adrenaline value; and performing the selected animated action.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention, the method further includes using an analog button on the controller as the control element for indicating the level of aggression desired by the player for the animated action.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention, a method is provided for controlling game play in a video game, wherein a user interactively controls a game character in a virtual environment using a game controller. The method includes: defining initial character parameters for the character for use during game play; detecting user input from the game controller requesting an animated action by the character; reading an adrenaline value from a control element on the controller indicating a level of aggression desired by the user for the animated action; adjusting at least one of the initial character parameters based on the adrenaline value; and performing the animated action using the adjusted character parameters.